12 Ways to Use Marketing Effectively for the Food Industry

In order to take your F&B marketing to the next level, think about stepping out of routine tasks and think about delegating business functions outside of your company. Sometimes all you need is a fresh new approach.

 

What types of businesses do these tips apply to?

• Seasonal stores and Pop ups
• Home based F&B 
• Restaurants and Cafes

Image: 8 Days Singapore

1. Consistently work with influencers and food bloggers to try your food

When I say consistent, I mean adhering to at least 3 or more influencers per month. Many times, I see brands engage influencers on a one-off basis to ‘try it out’. And because the engagement is so little, there is hardly much impact made to really see traction from the influencer(s).

If you are a small business and do not have time or the manpower to manage this, work with targeted platforms that can do this for you at a small cost.

An Example will be Yoripe

 

Yoripe, a digital platform that allows users to connect, share recipes and get inspirations for meals targeting home cooks, bakers and foodies. Each ingredient is linked to the location where the product can be bought. And that is where brands can leverage this to increase product sales and have content created for them by Yoripe’s creators, chefs and influencers.

With content created by users, your brand will increase its credibility and you can repurpose positively reviewed content across your owned channels as well, killing two birds with one stone. 

 

2. Move your menu online

Online menus are not only becoming more common — due to Covid-19, they are also becoming more critical to your F&B business’ success. Investing in an e-menu will help prospects who are looking for a place to eat find you. It also allows them to screenshot and share your menu with others, hence enabling you to acquire new customers. Using Shopify as a platform will also enable you to build your restaurant’s menu online by add products and prices to your online store. Your menu items can also include descriptive titles and accurate descriptions.

With a nicely design e-menu, it will improve your overall dining experience from awareness to conversion. On top of that, if you are offering delivery or take away services, being able to check out directly from your e-menu will help shorten the steps required to checkout, making it a lot easier and smoother for your customers.

Image: Macdonalds AU

 

3. Collaborate with others in your industry

Offer to add value and exchange information in return for a link back or a brand awareness placement on their website, email newsletter, socials and etc.

 

Image: Ben & Jerry’s

 

Image: Meat Smith x Jack Daniel

 

4. Place your product in highly used contexts like Chope, Hungrygowhere, Yelp and etc.

Utilize their network to find customers for you. These food sites have great power in the industry as they are able to bring in crowds if you manage your reviews and listings well.

 

5. Write and issue press releases to your local media

Use sites like PRWeb or PR Newswire to reach out to editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and television stations. These distribution services may lead to your news getting syndicated by all your local or regional media outlets. Or, engage a PR Company that has the resources and contacts to get the word out faster, saving you time.

 

6. Google My Business for F&B is underestimated

Go beyond the basic setup to include

• High quality content and images
• Ask for reviews from happy customers (Have a reputation management strategy)
• Make sure hours are updated 
• Make sure your reservation CTA is highlighted

Image: Five Oars Google Search

 

7. Capitalise on Geo-Targeting across Google and FB/IG

Capture audiences around your proximity by running geotargeting ads on Facebook, Instagram and Google.

 

8. Level up on your Instagram Feed, Consistently

Promote your F&B business best visual and attractive content. This can be a mix between photos and/or videos of your location’s decor, mouth-watering food and drinks, behind the scenes content of your chef flipping the pizza or searing the perfect steak (you get the idea!)

On top of that, utilise hashtags for menu items, chef names, locations to reach out to new audiences.

 

9. Create campaigns based on monthly observances

Planning this in advance will help carry out your research and plan for creative ideas better.

First, map out the important public holidays and set up promotions around it. Consumers strategise their spendings around most major holidays so offering special discounts during these dates will benefit your sales. Then, look for other smaller holidays relevant to your business here at Time and Date. There is literally a day for almost everything!

 

10.  Send monthly Email Newsletters

Widen your brand’s reach by updating your audience on new updates, promotions and more. Create value-added content that helps build your F&B business’ credibility in the industry as opposed to sending promotional emails alone. Recommended frequency: Nothing more than 2 emails / month. Don’t spam your audiences with your content.

**After working so hard on setting up the content, don’t forget to set up a catchy email subject title as that is the first thing your readers will interact with. You don’t want them to drop up at the first touch point.

 

 

11. Set up a Social Playbook to manage your community

Gather all the channels you are listed on and set up SOPs for each channel according to best practices. Update this every 6 months because there are always new ideas to one up your competitors on an ongoing basis. Setup a social media playbook, a living documentation that includes the following to help manage your fans on each channel.

• Tone and voice guidelines
• Content guidelines for each platform/channel
• Rules of engagement – How to respond to angry, buying, curious and happy customers

 

12. Or, Get an Agency as a Partner

Increase the flexibility of your business model and consider outsourcing an agency to bring you fresh new ideas. Agencies are professionals in their field – content creators, digital campaign managers and developers, and having a team can help you better your processes much faster and more efficiently.